A Place for Experience: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Boundary, Identity, and Culture

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Hoggett

Proceeding on the assumption that the ‘inner world’ is marked by an imminent catastrophe, the Kleinian tradition within psychoanalysts proposes that human development requires the existence of a benign social medium which is reliable and flexible enough for fear to be contained without being visited upon the other. Such a medium finds representation in a variety of psychological and social spaces, spaces where experience can be held on to and worked upon so that thought might occur. The author seeks to outline a number of basic spatial configurations which occur as a result of the ‘moves' made by the subject in its struggle to obtain a space for experience—some of the configurations facilitate development, some destroy it. It is suggested that such configurations are a characteristic both of internal and of external environments and offer important insights into the constitution of identities and the ordering of the social world.

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Riikka Nissi ◽  
Melisa Stevanovic

Abstract The article examines how the aspects of the social world are enacted in a theater play. The data come from a videotaped performance of a professional theater, portraying a story about a workplace organization going through a personnel training program. The aim of the study is to show how the core theme of the play – the teaming up of the personnel – is constructed in the live performance through a range of interactional means. By focusing on four core episodes of the play, the study on the one hand points out to the multiple changes taking place both within and between the different episodes of the play. On the other hand, the episodes of collective action involving the semiotic resources of singing and dancing are shown to represent the ideals of teamwork in distinct ways. The study contributes to the understanding of socially and politically oriented theater as a distinct, pre-rehearsed social setting and the means and practices that it deploys when enacting the aspects of the contemporary societal issues.


1999 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-98
Author(s):  
René Gothóni

Religion should no longer only be equated with a doctrine or philosophy which, although important, is but one aspect or dimension of the phenomenon religion. Apart from presenting the intellectual or rational aspects of Buddhism, we should aim at a balanced view by also focusing on the mythical or narrative axioms of the Buddhist doctrines, as well as on the practical and ritual, the experiential and emotional, the ethical and legal, the social and institutional, and the material and artistic dimensions of the religious phenomenon known as Buddhism. This will help us to arrive at a balanced, unbiased and holistic conception of the subject matter. We must be careful not to impose the ethnocentric conceptions of our time, or to fall into the trap of reductionism, or to project our own idiosyncratic or personal beliefs onto the subject of our research. For example, according to Marco Polo, the Sinhalese Buddhists were 'idolaters', in other words worshippers of idols. This interpretation of the Sinhalese custom of placing offerings such as flowers, incense and lights before the Buddha image is quite understandable, because it is one of the most conspicuous feature of Sinhalese Buddhism even today. However, in conceiving of Buddhists as 'idolaters', Polo was uncritically using the concept of the then prevailing ethnocentric Christian discourse, by which the worshippers of other religions used idols, images or representations of God or the divine as objects of worship, a false God, as it were. Christians, on the other hand, worshipped the only true God.


Author(s):  
Mamoon Yousef Salem Mamoon Yousef Salem

This research aims to clarify the synergy (bond/integration) between the Capital and the Intelligence in light of the Qura’an and Sunnah from sutainable developmental perspective, in the other way its attentively enlightens the meanings of versus of Quran and Sunnah in sustainable way; The research methodology was based ubon Tracking the Holy Quraan & Sunnah to reveal/explain the link/connection between capital and Intelligance mentioned in it, the researcher reaches that there is strong integration between the types (Capital& Intelligence) in examples (Role Models/leaders) from Quran and Sunnah in order to achieve peace, prosperity and sustainability to the community, and it reveals that Quran and true sunnah has a biggest influence in supporting this Coalition by setting such these examples and with the guidance of Allah and its prophet Mohammed (ppuh) reactions (sayings, doing and approval), taken in consideration not to twist the versus of Quran or hadith to comply/ match with the subject of the research; and the results of this study that there is a strong sustainable relationship between all types of capital and intelligence supported by Quran and reinforced by Sunnah, in fact there is a solid bond between intelligence and capital shown in Quran and Sunnah for the sake of humanity, also Quran and Sunnah encourages transparency and positivity in all ways of life (relationships, thoughts, communications,..) in sustainable moral frame to achieve Eternity in this life and at the judgment day; And the recommendations is that It’s Important for Islamic Institutes to support like these researches effectively to enhance the sustainable human development in the society, further more It’s crucial to implement the intelligence types by Institutes in Islamic perspective in all ways of life (educational, cultural, social,..) to build a generation proud of his Islam and ready to work for it.


Author(s):  
Brian L. Keeley

Where does entertaining (or promoting) conspiracy theories stand with respect to rational inquiry? According to one view, conspiracy theorists are open-minded skeptics, being careful not to accept uncritically common wisdom, exploring alternative explanations of events no matter how unlikely they might seem at first glance. Seen this way, they are akin to scientists attempting to explain the social world. On the other hand, they are also sometimes seen as overly credulous, believing everything they read on the Internet, say. In addition to conspiracy theorists and scientists, another significant form of explanation of the events of the world can be found in religious contexts, such as when a disaster is explained as being an “act of God.” By comparing conspiratorial thinking with scientific and religious forms of explanation, features of all three are brought into clearer focus. For example, anomalies and a commitment to naturalist explanation are seen as important elements of scientific explanation, although the details are less clear. This paper uses conspiracy theories as a lens through which to investigate rational or scientific inquiry. In addition, a better understanding of the scientific method as it might be applied in the study of events of interest to conspiracy theorists can help understand their epistemic virtues and vices.


Religions ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Barbara Aniela Bonar

In this paper, I explain the problem of the dreamer in the Zhuangzi. I aim to show that no difference exists between dreaming states and waking states because we have a fluctual relationship with these two stages. In both, “we are dreaming.” Put another way, from a psychoanalytical point of view, one stage penetrates the other and vice versa. The difference between dreaming and non-dreaming disappears because dreaming is a structural process. Also, from a psychoanalytical perspective, all confirmations and negations about dreams and non-dreams leads to one point: the being, or rather the becoming, of the subject. How does this solve the problem of the True Person/True Human Being (zhenren真人)? Does such a person have dreams or not? Does the True Person sleep without dreams, as we find in the Zhuangzi? From a psychoanalytic perspective, this is not possible. To prove this, I will present few passages from the Zhuangzi and offer a psychoanalytic explanation of them based on Jacques Lacan’s theory of the fantasy and desire.


2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 898-917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mathias Albert ◽  
Barry Buzan

AbstractThis article deals with the subject matter of International Relations as an academic discipline. It addresses the issue of whether and how one or many realms could legitimately be claimed as the discipline’s prime subject. It first raises a number of problems associated with both identifying the subject matter of IR and ‘labelling’ the discipline in relation to competing terms and disciplines, followed by a discussion on whether, and to what degree, IR takes its identity from a confluence of disciplinary traditions or from a distinct methodology. It then outlines two possibilities that would lead to identifying IR as a discipline defined by a specific realm in distinction to other disciplines: (1) the ‘international’ as a specificrealmof the social world, functionally differentiated from other realms; (2) IR as being about everything in the social world above a particularscale. The final section discusses the implications of these views for the study of International Relations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mosse

AbstractCaste has always generated political and scholarly controversy, but the forms that this takes today newly combine anti-caste activism with counter-claims that caste is irrelevant or non-existent, or claims to castelessness. Claims to castelessness are, in turn, viewed by some as a new disguise for caste power and privilege, while castlessness is also an aspiration for people subject to caste-based discrimination. This article looks at elite claims to “enclose” caste within religion, specifically Hinduism, and the Indian nation so as to restrict the field of social policy that caste applies to, to exempt caste-based discrimination from the law, and to limit the social politics of caste. It does so through a comparative analysis of two cases. The first is the exclusion of Christian and Muslim Dalits—members of castes subordinated as “untouchable”—from provisions and protections as Scheduled Castes in India. The other case is that of responses to the introduction of caste into anti-discrimination law in the UK. While Hindu organizations in the UK reject “caste” as a colonial and racist term and deploy postcolonial scholarship to deny caste discrimination, Dalit organizations, representing its potential victims, turn to scholarly discourse on caste, race, or human rights to support their cause. These are epistemological disputes about categories of description and how “the social” is made available for public debate, and especially for law. Such disputes engage with anthropology, whose analytical terms animate and change the social world that is their subject.


2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-165
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier Hernández Quezada

In this article we take a general look at four Mexican authors who have tackled the subject of animal sacrifice: Ramón Rubín, Juan José Arreola, Héctor Aguilar Camín and Alberto Chimal. Our broad approach is that one way or the other harmful and disadvantageous situations are expressed for the non-human entity, considering the social implications of the role which has been assigned to it across time, be it in the symbolic act or in today’s production logic. Departing from such Derridean considerations about the existing relationship between humans and fauna, it is evident that in the works of the authors analyzed, the topic or use of animals presents the material reach of their sacrifice, especially when the matter of the literary representation of pain or physical suffering comes into play. It is relevant at the same time to affirm that in this work we consider the reflections of several authors who, from a philosophic or anthropologic perspective, have delved into the fundamental aspects of the sacrificial act, pointing out the evocative role of the animal, rightly conceived as an important cultural event, wherein are manifested transcendental ceremonies (René Girard) or the rites of passage which strengthen the group’s ties (Clifford Geertz).


1998 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aryeh L. Unger

The article attempts to explicate the meaning of “Sovietology.” It traces the origins of the term and discusses the uses to which it has been put in the scholarly literature. Two different meanings have been attached to the term. One reflects the understanding of Sovietology as the study of Soviet politics; the other views it as a “basket” of several, variously specified, disciplines in the social sciences and—less often—the humanities, distinguished by a common area orientation. The resultant ambiguity has blurred Sovietology's disciplinary identity. Now that the record of Western scholarship on the Soviet Union has become the subject of critical scrutiny and debate, it is especially important that the meaning of “Sovietology” be clearly stipulated.


2020 ◽  
pp. 96-107
Author(s):  
Anastasia Ilyina

The article examines the epistolary legacy (numbering more than three hundred letters) of Alcuin of York, perhaps the most prominent figure of the so-called Carolingian Renaissance, a famous associate of Charlemagne. Comparison of Alcuin’s letters with samples of late antique epistolography makes it possible to trace the degree of continuity of cultural and social practices of pagan Antiquity and the Christian Middle Ages. In addition, reference to Alcuin’s correspondence makes it possible to look into the inner world of a Christian intellectual, to get acquainted with the issues and problems that occupy the minds of his contemporaries, to build a scheme of Alcuin’s network communication and to understand how far his spiritual influence extended in Europe and with which social layers he communicated. Setting the goal of identifying the characteristic features of the Christian intellectual community at the turn of the VIII—IX centuries on the basis of the analysis of Alcuin’s epistolary heritage, the author of the article defines the social and geographical boundaries of the circulation of Alcuin’s letters, identifies the succession of his letters from the ancient epistolary tradition, identifies and analyzes the main problems raised in Alcuin’s letters. To achieve this goal, the article uses a historical and anthropological approach with elements of semiotic analysis. The succession of Alcuin’s correspondence from the traditions of late antique epistolography is reflected, first of all, in the form of letters, the way they were written, and the use of stable rhetorical techniques. At the same time, attention is drawn to the change in the social portrait of the address and, due to this, the expansion of the circle of addressees, which now includes not only representatives of the highest secular and church elite, but also nsufficiently educated and ignoble people, for whom Alcuin acted as a spiritual father and mentor. The analysis of the letters shows that Alcuin’s awareness of his responsibility for the fate of the addressees determines the subject matter of the letters, many of which are devoted to explaining the responsibilities of certain members of the Christian community, defining the area of responsibility of the laity and clergy, constructing of the image of an ideal clergyman or a righteous layman.


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